


no better version of me

by londer



Series: elmville elementary [1]
Category: Dimension 20, Fantasy High
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Complete, F/M, Human AU, Kindergarten AU, Meddling, Modern AU, NOW WITH AN EPILOGUE!, Single Parent AU, Vomiting, being really dumb and not noticing someone flirting with you, single parent/teacher au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24932842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer
Summary: Anthony’s mom is late picking him up again, but Gorgug doesn’t mind staying after. Technically things like this are supposed to get reported to the admin, but Ms. Donovan’s an ER nurse so he’s more than happy to cut her some slack. The after school program is pretty expensive, and she’s only ever ten or fifteen minutes late; Gorgug would probably still be there anyways picking up the classroom for the day.
Relationships: Zelda Donovan/Gorgug Thistlespring
Series: elmville elementary [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835827
Comments: 41
Kudos: 135





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I hate children OCs  
> Also me: parent/teacher au time!!
> 
> You should def picture a human version of [this art of senior year Gorgug](https://glimmer.co.vu/post/613272944394764288/incoming-freshman-vs-outgoing-seniors-this-was-so) for the duration of this fic.
> 
> Title from Hozier's Jackie and Wilson which listened to on repeat while writing this.
> 
> The vomit only comes up in the March section and is only related to a kid being sick but if you need to skip it please do!

_september_

Anthony’s mom is late picking him up again, but Gorgug doesn’t mind staying after. Technically things like this are supposed to get reported to the admin, but Ms. Donovan’s an ER nurse so he’s more than happy to cut her some slack. The after school program is pretty expensive, and she’s only ever ten or fifteen minutes late; Gorgug would probably still be there anyways picking up the classroom for the day.

Anthony’s a sweet kid and a real good sport about being the last one left at school. He sits quietly on a beanbag flipping through his Egyptology book while Gorgug writes up reading assessment notes at his desk. Kindergarten’s an important year for lifelong literacy and there’s one or two kiddos who probably need to start going to regular sessions with the reading specialist. Not Anthony, though, the kid’s nearly at fourth grade level and rising solely based on his obsession with ancient Egypt. He’s already gone through the entire school library’s supply of history books and is well on his way to polishing off all the K-6 material at the local library on the subject. 

Ms. Donovan rushes in exactly twelve minutes after school gets out. She’s still in her blue scrubs from work and her short dark hair is pulled back into two little pigtails. Gorgug looks up and takes his reading spectacles off when she walks in, gives her a good smile. 

She smiles back and her whole face lightens with it. “Anthony, hey bud. Grab your backpack and let’s get headed home. Mr. Thistlespring, thank you for-“

“Ms. Donovan, I’ve told you before that you don’t need to thank me,” Gorgug says easily. “It’s no problem at all.” 

“It’s just Zelda,” she says and she really does glow when she smiles. 

“Gorgug,” he replies. His stomach flips a little bit. Probably ate something weird at lunch.

She nods firmly before turning to Anthony. “What do we say, kiddo?”

“Thanks Mr. T,” Anthony says, not even looking up from his book. Zelda rolls her eyes fondly and shepherds him out of the classroom, gives Gorgug a little wave as she goes. 

_october_

Zelda is later than usual today and Gorgug is trying not to worry too much about it so as to not stress Anthony out. He’d gotten used to the predictability of her lateness and has stress redone his half-up half-down bun at least three or four times by now.

When she does get there, nearly forty minutes after school gets out, her eyes are rimmed red and her scrubs top is clearly too big and borrowed. She scoops Anthony right up into her arms and holds him tight, eyes looking a little watery.

“I’m sorry,” she starts but Gorgug cuts her off as always. 

“Don’t worry about it.” He grabs the Kleenex from his desk and walks over to offer her some. In a lower voice, “Bad shift?”

“Four car crash,” she says over Anthony's head, barely a whisper. “No survivors.”

“Jeez,” Gorgug says. He thinks about hugging her but that’s definitely crossing a boundary. He settles for a sort of pat/squeeze on her upper arm. “That’s- I can’t even imagine.” 

“Yeah,” Zelda says, hefts Anthony in her arms to sit more comfortably on her hip. “Well. We'd better be going. Have a good one.” And she leaves him there alone in his classroom.

_november_

The annual Turkey Trot 5k in late November is an Elmville classic and Gorgug runs it every year in a very large turkey shaped hat. His former students always cheer when they see him from the sidelines with their families and he always makes sure to wave at them. He never places especially high (the high school track teams always dominate), but he loves it anyways. 

Zelda’s at the finish line with the EMT crew, handing out cups of water and finisher t-shirts. Anthony’s sitting on the bumper of the ambulance parked behind her, nose in yet another book. 

“Hey,” Gorgug says as he approaches her and she smiles at him. It’s kind of funny how different she looks with her hair down and around her face in soft curls. She's wearing jeans and a hoodie too, which is pretty far from her usual scrubs.

“Hey!” She says, hands him a paper cone of water. “Nice hat you’ve got there.”

He takes it off and offers it to her. “You wanna wear it?” 

“I think I’ll pass. Clashes with my outfit, you know how it goes.” 

“Yeah,” Gorgug tucks it between his knees to leave his hands free to fix his hair. Zelda's eyes track over his arms as he reaches above his head to redo his little ponytail. God, he must look like a sweaty mess. "Hey Anthony, how's it hanging? Good book?"

Anthony looks up at him with a crooked smile. He lost two teeth at once last week in a very dramatic recess incident involving a kickball moving at high velocity. “Yup! Lotsa mummies!” 

“Cool,” Gorgug says. He doesn’t really know what else to say and he’s still pretty out of breath from the run. 

“Big plans for the rest of your Thanksgiving?” Zelda asks.

He’s about to answer when Anthony cuts in. “Mr. T! You should come to our house!”

Zelda looks mortified. Gorgug laughs. “I wish I could, bud, but I’ve got to go to _my_ mom and dad’s house for dinner. Thank you for inviting me, though!”

Anthony looks thoroughly put out at the news and Gorgug’s probably imagining it, but Zelda looks a little disappointed too.

_December_

Gorgug's lurking in the back of the cafetorium watching the holiday concert. The kids are pretty bad despite Fig's efforts, but they're little so it's cute anyways.

"Hey," Zelda says quietly, nearly appearing at his elbow. She's wearing a really hideous sweater (possibly on purpose? Hard to say) and reindeer antlers on a headband. 

"Hey," he says. "Did you just get here?" He tracks across the stage taking attendance again. Anthony's up there alright, and clearly doesn't know the words. 

"No, just got bullied out of my seat by some pushy grandma," Zelda grumbles. "They're pretty terrible, huh?" 

That startles a laugh out of him. "Yeah. Fig-I mean, Ms. Faeth really tries with them but they're five. They barely have object permanence." 

Zelda snickers at that and leans against the wall next to him. She's pretty short, just barely comes up to his biceps and she watches the stage with bright eyes in the dim light.

_January_

He doesn't see Zelda all of January. She swapped shifts for a few weeks when someone went out on maternity leave. Anthony's grandma picks him up right on time every day. 

It's a longer month than usual. He's not really sure why. The bad weather, maybe. 

_February_

They make Valentines' Day cards in Mrs. A-O's art session that morning. Gorgug's whole classroom is full of glitter and red paper scraps. 

"Kristen," he says, surveying the mess that's greeting him. "I thought we said no glitter."

"Gorgug it's _Valentines_ , the glitter represents how much you _love_ the person you're giving it to!" Kristen looks thoroughly unbothered as she packs up the Art Cart to head to the second grade wing. "More glitter is more love!" 

He gives her a brief dirty look before turning to the class. "What do we say to Mrs. A-O?" A tiny chorus of _thank youuuus_ comes from the kids. "Okay, fastest table to clean up and sit quiet gets stickers!" 

There's still glitter everywhere at the end of the day, so he breaks out the dust buster while he and Anthony wait for Zelda to get there. She's wearing pink scrubs with little bears and hearts on them and big heart-shaped earrings. Super cute. He waves hello to her from where he's sitting on the carpet in the reading section vacuuming away. 

Anthony runs to her and she kneels down to talk to him by the door of the classroom. Gorgug hears her sigh, say "Anthony, you are- _fine_ , yes, I'll give it to him." He looks up to see her approaching him holding a very pink card that's plastered with glitter. "This is for you, I guess. Haha. Um-" 

"Thanks," Gorgug stands and takes it gingerly, tries not to dislodge any more glitter onto the carpet.

"It's from her!" Anthony says impatiently from the door. "I made it, but it's from Mom." Zelda closes her eyes and her face scrunches up like she's embarrassed or trying not to laugh. Maybe both.

"Aw," Gorgug says. "Well, thank you Zelda." He winks at her, trying to be funny, but she just looks more flushed and embarrassed. Oops. Fuck. 

"Yeah," she says softly. "Um- you have some glitter-" She brushes at her own face to show him.

He mimics her. "Did I get it?" 

"Um, no, here-" She stands on her tiptoes and reaches up to brush at his cheekbone. Her hand is really small and soft on his face and Gorgug closes his eyes so as not to get any glitter in them. When he reopens them she's looking a little defensive, holding her arms close to her chest. "Got it." 

"Thanks." 

"Yeah," she retreats and picks up Anthony's bag. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

_March_

Anthony throws up all over himself during class and immediately bursts into tears. Gorgug sends the kids to Fabian in the gym early so he can walk Anthony to the nurse's office. It's kindergarten, kids puke all the time, but Anthony's crying so hard that he wants to make sure that he's okay. 

Riz doesn't even bat an eyelash when he sees Anthony's gross t-shirt. "Hey bud," he says. "Think you're gonna puke again or did you get it all out?" Anthony shrugs. "Okay. Let's have you lie down and I'll find you a clean shirt." Anthony lies out on one of the cots. He looks so little and sad as he holds his tummy. Gorgug will give him a hug when he's not covered in puke. 

"I'll call Zel-Ms. Donovan," Gorgug says. He digs up her contact information on Riz's computer while Riz fusses around with getting Anthony into clean clothes which he immediately pukes onto again. Such is kindergarten.

She picks up right away, thank god. "Zelda-I mean, Ms. Donovan. This is Mr. Thistlespring, from Elmville Elementary." 

"Oh god," Zelda says. "Is everything okay?" 

"Um. Yes? Anthony's throwing up and is going to need to go home early. Will you be able to come get him or should we call someone else to release him to?" 

He can almost hear her thinking over the line. "Uh. Yes. I mean, probably. Can I call you back in five?" 

"Absolutely," Gorug says and she hangs up on him. 

She calls back a few minutes later. Gorgug definitely hasn't been staring at the phone waiting to hear from her. "I found someone to cover me, I'll be there in half an hour."

"Great," Gorgug says. "See you then." 

He sits on the end of Anthony's cot and asks him about the pyramids, which gets him to stop crying at least. Poor kiddo still doesn't look so good, pale and clammy in a shirt several sizes too large.

Zelda gets there in twenty five and pushes past the startled secretary to get into Riz's office. She sits on the other side of Anthony's cot to Gorgug. "Hey kiddo." Anthony starts crying again and she just nods, already feeling his forehead and taking his pulse. "Okay. Let's get you going." She helps him to his feet and he slumps fully into her side, unwilling to stand up on his own. Riz gives her a bag with Anthony's old shirt in it and Gorgug hands over his backpack. "Thanks Mr. Gukgak, Gorg-Mr. Thistlespring for looking out for him." They shuffle out to the front desk to get him signed out.

Riz looks at Gorgug for a really long minute, eyes narrowed. "Huh," he says finally.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," Riz says, rolls his eyes. "Go get the rest of your kids from Fabian."

_April_

Field Day is the best day of the spring. His kids get broken up into the twenty school-wide teams and for whatever reason they let the sixth graders be in charge of herding their team around to the different events. The PTA hosts, so Gorgug and Fig are running the bean bag toss at the back of the soccer fields with one of the fifth-grade dads.

Zelda's running the station next to them with two other moms and they're chatting away. She's wearing jorts and a tie-dye tshirt, hair pulled up in a little puffy bun. Fig's staring at her in between groups. "Anthony's mom is really cute," Fig says. 

Gorgug's brain sort of stops. Maybe he's getting too much sun. "You could go flirt with her," he says evenly as he puts a baseball hat on to hopefully help with the rushing in his ears. "She's single, no other parent in the picture based on Anthony's writing assignments." 

Fig glares at him, which is mean, Gorgug's only trying to help. They get their shift swap a few minutes later, with Adaine and some other parents coming to take over for them. Fig shakes her head to Adaine and Adaine facepalms pretty hard. He's not really sure what that's about. 

He sits under the big beech tree during his break, just lies out in the grass and looks up at the sky through the leaves. He'll go get a snack in a minute, but it's too nice of a day to do anything but be outside. They really lucked out on the weather this year. 

Soft footsteps crunch in the grass beside him and Zelda drops down beside him. "Cool ranch or nacho cheese?" She asks, holding up two bags. 

"Nacho cheese, please and thank you." 

She tosses him the bag and lays out on the ground next to him. He turns his head and they're face to face for once, height difference eliminated. Her eyes are a really pretty dark brown up close. Zelda smiles at him and then turns to look back up at the sky. "So you do this every year?" 

"Yup," Gorgug's still looking at her side profile. "It's one of the best traditions we have. Maybe not as good as the summer reading challenge reward carnival, but up there." 

She laughs and her head tilts back with it. "Yeah, we went to it last year. Anthony loved it, I could barely get him off the tilt-a-whirl." 

"He's got good taste," Gorgug says. "I'm a fan of the tilt-a-whirl myself." 

"I'm more of a ferris wheel girl myself," Zelda says. "Nice views, you know?" She turns back to look at him. Their faces are really close together. He hopes he isn't making her uncomfortable.

"Yeah," Gorgug says. "Nice view." 

_May_

Gorgug gives all of the field trip chaperones his personal cell number while they wait for the bus in the parking lot and Zelda sends him a little _hey this is zelda_ followed by the sparkly star emoji. They're leaving pretty early for the aquarium, and it's still gray out as the bus loads up. He watches as Zelda swings into one of the bench seats near the front and Anthony giggles and tears up the aisle away from her to go sit with one of his friends. She feigns hurt until Gorgug sits next to her. 

"Morning," she says, yawning and sipping at a giant thermos of coffee. She's wearing a really big hoodie that swallows her up. "Big day today. I'm almost worried we're about to go from an ancient Egypt phase to a creepy deep sea fish phase." 

"It'll give him new stuff to read at the library, at least," Gorgug says. He tucks his clipboard into his bag and nods to the driver to get them going. The bus trundles out of the parking lot as he settles back into his seat, careful to leave her plenty of space on the seat. He's a big guy, doesn't want her to feel squished. 

She sighs and nods. "True." Zelda produces a pair of earbuds from her bag, plugs it into her phone. She pauses, and then offers him one end. "Wanna share?" 

He does, so he takes it and pops it in his ear, slumps down in the seat so the cord doesn't have to stretch so much between them. She hits play and he jolts because he one hundred percent did _not_ peg her as the heavy metal type. He's instantly brought back to his college days, of sweaty nights in seedy venues raging away the frustration of the injustices presented as fact in early childhood ed classes. 

"Sorry," Zelda says, scrambling for her phone. "I can change it-"

"No," Gorgug grabs her arm to stop her, then lets go quickly when she stares at how his hand encircles her forearm. "I like it. Really. I've actually seen this band live, back in college." 

"No way," she says, jaw dropping. She has a very nice mouth. Full lips, slightly crooked teeth. "You saw The Insatiables live?" 

"Oh yeah," Gorgug says. They don't even listen to the music the whole drive to the aquarium, just swap stories about shows they've seen. Turns out they're both a little more wild when they're not being responsible adults than either of them thought.

_June_

They hold kindergarten graduation on the last Friday night of the year. Gorgug's really proud of his kids and is pretty sad to see them all go. Everyone has on their best clothes and are wearing the mortars they decorated during art this week. He hands out fake diplomas and everyone cheers and then they all go to the art gallery that's been set up in the school courtyard of all their projects from the year. Some of the sixth graders are playing in a little string quartet in the corner and there's a table with lemonade and pizza and cookies. Gorgug high-fives Adaine as they watch their classes run around with their parents showing off their art.

"This was a good year," she says definitively. "I'll miss this bunch."

"Yeah," Gorgug says. "Got any good plans for summer break?" 

Adaine's about to respond, but then she sees something behind him and her face twists with amusement. "I actually need to- I'll talk to you later." She gets up and walks away very quickly, beelining towards where Fig is conducting the quartet. 

He turns to see Zelda sitting down in the chair next to him, looking tense. She's wearing a pretty yellow sundress and he sees for the first time a really beautiful tattoo of a flower that curves under one of her collarbones. "Hey," he says, shifts in his chair to face her. "How's it going?" 

"Do you want to get dinner sometime?" She asks and then blushes a really lovely shade of pink. "Like. As a date." 

Gorgug freezes for a second because a lot of math from the past year is adding up in his head very quickly. He must take too long because she starts to say something, is already out of her seat to leave. He catches her hand and she turns to face him. "I would. Like to. Get dinner. As a date." 

"Oh," she says and her blush gets even more brilliant as she smiles. They're still holding hands and her skin is warm and soft. "Okay. Cool." 

"I have your number already," he says dumbly because his brain is really still trying to catch up. "I'll call you. Or text you, if you prefer."

"Calling's good," she says. 

"Then I'll call you," He's very aware of how he's sitting there holding her hand while she stands in front of him. He squeezes her hand, pulls very gently, and she sits back down beside him, looking flustered, still holding his hand. 

And. Well. She did all the hard work up to now, so he pulls his phone out of his pocket with his free hand and calls her right then and there. She looks confused until her purse begins to buzz and then her face glows with laughter as she fishes her phone out to pick up. 

"Hi," he says, hears the metallic echo of his voice from her phone. "So, dinner?"

"Hey," she says and there's that half second delay between her sweet voice next to him and the tinny version of her over his phone. "Thoughts on Thai?" 

"I'll have whatever you like."


	2. epilogue/bonus

_ June (2) _

They've gone out a few times now, to dinner and the movies, but this is the first time Zelda's come over to Gorgug's house. It's odd to see her in his space at first, but also feels right. Like she meshes into it, and he could see her there more often, in sweatpants on weekend mornings and nice dresses before they go out to dinner and sitting at the dining room table helping Anthony with homework.

God, he's in deep already. She looks around curiously, pokes cheerfully at his side table full of plants and looks at the photos he has up of his old classes, his teaching college cohort, his parents. 

They cook dinner together, weave in and out of each other's space. Gorgug keeps wanting to touch her arms or her waist when he moves around her but stops himself until he remembers that he just. Can now. That it's allowed for him to brush her bangs out of her eyes and to cup her hand in his own when she raises a spoonful of sauce for him to taste test. She touches him too, bumps him out of her way with her hip when she ducks into the oven, rests her cheek against his arm to peek into the salad bowl he's working in. 

They eat at his kitchen table, clear of papers and children's books for the first time in months. It's pretty simple penne alla vodka and salad and Zelda made this crazy good cheesy garlic bread. They do the dishes together after. He washes, she dries, which is a mistake because she doesn't know where anything goes and has to keep asking him where the silverware drawer is and if the spatula goes in the miscellaneous drawer or in the utensils bucket on the counter. 

He kisses her after everything is tidied. They both have terrible garlic breath but it's fine because at least it's both of them. She walks them backward and boosts herself up onto the counter so that he doesn't have to duck down so far to kiss her. Gorgug stands between her knees and slides one hand up to cup the back of her head in the kiss, marvels at how soft her mouth is, the silky curls in his hand. 

"There's dessert, if you want it," he says when she finally pulls back, breathing hard. Her eyes widen in a sharp way and he - "I mean! Sorry! There's literally dessert, I bought ice cream - I didn't mean it, as, you know -" Her face relaxes and she giggles as she pulls him back in.

_ July (1) _

Anthony plays rec soccer in the summer and Zelda invites him to come to one of the games. It's a miserably drizzly Saturday, just damp and grey enough that nobody wants to be there but not bad enough to actually call the game. Gorgug sits with Zelda on the sidelines in their camper chairs and cheer as much as they can.

It's a relief when the clock finally runs down, a miserable 0-0 tie, and they pack up into his car. Anthony's miserable with the wet and humidity so they end up at the diner on the edge of town that blasts the air conditioning like they're personally trying to reverse global warming. It's freezing inside, but in a nice way that means nobody's thighs are sticking to the plastic seats of their corner booth. Zelda insists she's freezing and takes the opportunity to steal Gorgug's spare hoodie from his car. It's an old one from his college frisbee team and it swallows her up in grey fleece. He can't help but feel a flush of possessive pride at seeing his name striped across her arm, and busies himself helping Anthony flip through the thickest menu of all time to find the chicken nuggets listing. 

He feels like they're being watched while they're eating so he looks up to see Fig, Ayda, and Adaine sitting at a table across the diner, very clearly pretending to not have been watching them. He waves at them and Ayda waves back before Fig gently smacks her hand down. Gorgug checks his phone and sure enough there are twelve texts in his teacher friends group chat, all variants of the eyes emoji and  _ oh my god you guys look like a perfect little family  _ and one very blurry creeper shot that someone (probably Fig) took from across the restaurant _.  _ He just sends the dancing lady emoji back and looks up to see Zelda pulling her fork away from his plate with a huge bite of his pancake and a cheeky grin on her face.

_ July (2) _

"Gorgug!" Zelda screeches as he tosses her over his shoulder and strides towards the water. "Gorgug, no, please don't, the water's  _ so-! _ " She buries her face into the back of his shoulder, clings to his torso. Anthony runs alongside Gorgug, laughing happily. 

"Sorry babe," Gorgug says, without a trace of regret. "You did promise you would get in the water before we left." It's nearly sundown, the sky streaked brilliant with pink and gold.

" _ Nooooo _ ," she whines, mouth muffled against him. He swings her into his arms bridal-style when he's waist deep, rocks her back and forth in preparation to throw her into the water. She looks up at him with pleading brown eyes, pouts her lower lip dramatically. "It's gonna be so  _ cold _ ." 

He kisses her because he has to, she's just too cute in his arms and she relaxes a little. "Should've gone in sooner then," he whispers against her mouth and then tosses her a few feet forward into the ocean. She screeches but she's laughing at his dramatics, hits the water with a splash and resurfaces spluttering and wiping her hair out of her face. 

"Me next!" Anthony demands. He's small enough that Gorgug can get some real good distance on him, chucks him high and far into the waves, careful to throw parallel to the shore so he doesn't go too deep. 

Zelda charges him and he lets her tackle him into the shallows, sits on the sandy floor and watches Anthony splash his way back to them.

_ August (1) _

"Okay, so here's the deal," Gorgug says, kneels down in front of Anthony. "I'm going to give you this stack of supplies. You're going to go through the checkout line on your own. You're going to give the person helping you these coupons, and then this money, and then you're going to meet your mom outside, okay?" 

"Okay," Anthony says determinedly. Gorgug hands him a fifty dollar bill and a basket full of back to school supplies, pats him on the back. They're all on special for really cheap, but there's a limit per customer. Usually his parents come help him so that he can supply his classroom for cheap, but this year he's got Zelda and Anthony lending a hand. Fuck the American education system's inability to fund schools properly.

"You got this, bud," he says. They swap a high five and go to separate checkout lanes. 

Zelda's in the parking lot waiting for them with the car. The backseat is already piled high with folders and notebooks and Anthony's new dinosaur-themed backpack (the local librarians are so grateful to be able to supply him with new books). "My two favorite con men," she says as they put the new bags in the back. 

"It's not a con," Gorgug says primly as he buckles Anthony into his booster seat. "It's a strategic manipulation of unfair rules." 

She rolls her eyes and laughs at him as they pull away from the Staples. 

_ August (2)  _

Fabian helped him pick up the little bed and dresser from a Craigslist posting and lugged it up the narrow stairs in his house. They only scraped a wall a little bit and he can cover that with paint when it's time to get the security deposit back from his landlord. The room used to be his office, but was mostly storage, and he's rearranged the furniture in there at least six times now. He's called Adaine twice in a panic and she had laughed at him just a little before reassuring him that it would be fine, that Anthony probably was not going to be too fussy about what his bedroom at his mom's boyfriend's house looks like as long as it's clean and safe and has a bed. 

It's. A big step. Is the thing. They're not moving in, not at all, but y'know. They have movie nights on Fridays and it's just not safe for Zelda to drive them home at one am when she's already sleepy. It just makes sense. 

Zelda knows, of course, her whole face had gone soft and sweet and teary when he told her. She had buried her face in his chest and mumbled something about  _ tall sweet perfect man _ which seemed like a good sign. 

"Got something to show you, bud," Gorgug says after they eat dinner. He leads the way upstairs, pushes the door open to let Anthony go in first. His hands are definitely shaking, but Zelda grabs one and gives it a squeeze, smiles up at him while Anthony looks around the little room. "It's, uh. So if you want to sleep over here. Sometimes. You can sleep in here! In your own bed. Well, a bed that's yours. Um." 

Anthony deposits himself face first onto the bed and starfishes out. "Okay!" 

"Okay," Gorgug says and he just. His heart feels like a balloon in a summer storm. He sits down beside Anthony on the edge of the bed and Anthony crawls into his arms a little bit in a hug. Zelda sits on his other side and they make a little sandwich in this little corner of his (maybe their? someday?) house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just love them so much that i had to write a lil epilogue. also more to come in this verse eventually!! 
> 
> the school supplies grift is very real, my mom teaches elementary and i was forced as a child to go thru the checkout lines alone to buy a bunch of school supplies to max out the discount. fuck the american education system!

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://elsie-writes.tumblr.com)


End file.
